Conventional wisdom says the contentious battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will go all the way to the August convention.

But Democratic National Committee chairman Dean wants the delegate mess over well before that, possibly before the 10 remaining primaries are even done.

The Washington Times‘ Donald Lambro believes it’s likely.

The scenario Howard Dean and fellow party leaders fear most is a bitter political floor fight in Denver that will divide their own party and send a message to the country that the Democrats can’t even govern … themselves!

His plan calls on remaining undeclared superdelegates (350 or so) to break their neutrality sooner rather than later, providing enough votes to give someone the 2,025-delegate magic number needed to clinch the nomination.

“There is no point in waiting,” Howard Dean said recently, adding that he has been in the process of “talking to a fairly significant number of — by and large — nonaligned people about how we might resolve this.”

Howard Dean hopes the rest of the superdelegates will follow his advice and declare their preference during the coming weeks and effectively end the race.

If Barack Obama can hold his lead, as is likely, he will be close to 2,000 delegates, allowing the superdelegates to possibly him over the top.

As for the Florida and Michigan quagmire, Dean is making it clear that once the nomination race is all but over, there will be a deal in place to seat both of the delegations under a proportional formula … still to be worked out.

Whatever Dean has in mind, it had better happen fast.

While this has been going on, John McCain has tapped strategists and fund raisers, uniting the party and basking in his U.S. personal biography tour.

It may take months before the Democrats entirely get their act together, and how unified it will be remains a huge question.

Meanwhile, John McCain has actually pulled even or ahead in polls, and a once vulnerable GOP believes it can defeat a divided opposition.